


Benefits

by orphan_account



Category: One Direction (Band), Radio 1 RPF
Genre: Friends With Benefits, Getting Back Together, Humor, I Mean It's Mostly Funny, M/M, Past Relationship(s), Sexual Content, Yelling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-02
Updated: 2013-12-02
Packaged: 2018-01-03 05:34:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,830
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1066359
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Louis and Nick used to date and have been trying to be friends again. When Louis has to move in they find a way to avoid petty fights, but feelings get in the way.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Benefits

**Author's Note:**

> I was watching How I Met Your Mother and this was heavily inspired by that. Some of the dialogue is straight fro the show. Anyway it's just meant to be light and funny :)

When they moved in together, it was probably the most shocking news their little group of friends had ever heard. Louis and Nick didn’t hate each other per say, but they certainly weren’t the friendliest of exes. Their relationship had been short lived and everyone was very surprised when they broke it off without any very good reasons. But they stayed good friends and the group wasn’t awkward when they had to be together so everyone was happy.

Almost.

Louis started dating another guy only a month after he and Nick ended things and quickly moved in with him. However, Louis couldn’t stand to be in that relationship for very long and broke up with him. Of course that left Louis a bit homeless and the only person in their group with extra space was Nick.

Typical.

They took it rather well at first, having practically lived together when they were dating, so things were good. Until the little things that neither of them even noticed before started popping up and they got more and more annoyed with each other by the second.

It all came to a head one day when Louis was sitting on their couch, watching some footie game that Nick really could care less about. Nick did, however, notice the bowl of rainbow cereal in Louis’ hands.

“That looks good, I’m gonna get myself some.” Nick said as he walked across the living room and towards their kitchen.

But Louis, without taking his eyes off the TV shouted to him, “Oh, there’s no more milk.”

“No… I just saw some in the fridge.”

“It’s empty.”

Nick rolled his eyes and face palmed. “So throw it out.”

“The trash cans full.” Louis said with a shrug, turning up the volume.

Nick sighed indignantly. “So take the trash out!”

“I’m eating cereal!”

Nick reversed his trip to the kitchen and stood with his arms crossed by the couch. “You know, when you asked to be my roommate I thought, _‘Yeah, I’ll be a good friend and let the little fiend stay here. Besides, he wasn’t ever a bother before,’_ but no! You’re worse than an 80’s rock star in a hotel room!”

Louis paused the game, and started to stand up, shoving another bite of cereal in his mouth before he spoke. “You know what Nick? Instead of spending your time listening to that god awful hipster music of yours or watching one of those ridiculous foreign films you like so much, maybe _you_ should spend your time washing a dish. Ever.”

Nick threw his hands up in mock apology. “Oh darn! I can’t! _I’m_ too busy leaving a plate of cookies for the magical elf that changes the toilet paper roll!” he moved closer with a sarcastic smile on his lips. “Oh wait, there’s no elf! It’s _always_ me!”

Louis glared angrily, waving his spoon around and surly spilling some of that milk. “No I always change it, you _never_ do!”

“That is bullshit!” Nick yelled, pointing a finger at Louis’ chest. They were both yelling about the toilet paper and the milk and the dishes and even laundry and neither of them were really listening to what the other one was saying. In fact, they were barely, listening to the words coming out of their own mouths. It was just a loud string of yells and insults and swears before Louis was putting his cereal down and shushing them.

“Wait a minute! Stop, stop, stop!” Nick shut up and Louis sighed. “God, what is the matter with us? When we were dating we were pretty much living together, and we didn’t drive each other this crazy.”

“I know! What happened?” They both sat on the couch, puzzled looks on their faces, until Louis realized the answer.

“You know what it is? We were having sex.” Louis said. “People like us need sex to live with each other, it solves all disputes!”

“That’s an excellent point. I never noticed how annoying you were when we were dating because… well, you were almost always a little too naked for me to notice…” Nick said, leaning back against the couch and sighing.

Louis crossed his arms and leaned back with him. “Tell me about it. I didn’t really think about much else when we were together.”

There was a bit of an awkward pause, both men biting their lips and darting their eyes around the room, waiting for one of them to speak up again. Finally Nick couldn’t take it and he chuckled out, “Well, I guess we should just start having sex again.”

Louis’ head whipped around and he stared at Nick for a moment before they both started giggling. That was a ridiculous joke and they both knew it.

+

But it was a little strange that not that much later Nick was pounding into Louis on his dining room table. His hands were on Louis’ hips and he grunted out hot breaths onto Louis’ ear, while Louis clawed at his back and let high pitched keens escape his kiss swollen lips.

Very strange indeed.

“Fuck! Nick harder, yeah? I’m almost there.” Louis gasped and raised his legs higher up on Nick’s waist.

Nick replied by changing his angle slightly and hitting harder into that spot inside Louis. “Yeah, yeah me to.”

Louis stroked his cock quickly and came between them with a long moan. When he tightened around Nick, the taller man pulled out in time to cum on Louis’ thighs. “ _Shit._ ”

“I know. This poor table will never be the same.” Louis said, giggling and sitting up with Nick still between his legs. And then he felt Nick’s spunk on his legs and cringed. “Oh god, you better at least clean this up.”

“Of course darling.” Nick cooed, but in a sardonic sort of way, and he slipped into the kitchen to grab a couple paper towels for them. While they were cleaning off it sort of hit Nick exactly what had just happened. “So we had sex.”

“Very good Nicholas! Want a fucking prize?”

“Pretty sure I just got it actually.” Nick said with a wink, earning him a slap on the back on his head from Louis. “But seriously Lou is this just going to be a thing between us?”

“I mean, if it will get us to stop wanting to rip each other’s heads off…”Louis shrugged.

“Right. Well if this is going to happen on occasion, we should set up some rules, yeah?” Nick asked. Louis nodded and threw his dirty towel into the kitchen. “Right, rule number one is this is strictly physical, there are no feelings involved. Okay?”

Louis laughed. “Oh please, that’s like telling Becks to be cool.”

Nick rolled his eyes, but couldn’t help but giggle. “Right, rule number two; no romance. We aren’t dating so don’t expect any flowers.”

“As long as you don’t expect me to pay for both our dinners.” Louis said.

“And rule number three; we can’t tell anyone about it.” Nick said seriously. “Deal?”

“Deal.”

“Deal.” Came a third voice that belonged to none other than their dear friend Harry, who was standing in the doorway with wide eyes and his mouth caught open.

Nick and Louis jumped off the table, both screaming and grabbing anything to cover themselves up. Louis rolled over the back of the couch and threw a cushion at Nick, who was chasing after Harry when he started to leave. “Harry! Harry stop right there.”

With his hand on the doorknob, Harry took a deep breath and turned around. “What the hell are you guys doing? What are you guys like… back together?”

“No!” They both shouted. Louis grabbed a blanket to cover up and ran over to the other two.

“Then what the fuck is going on?” Harry asked.

“We’re just having sex so we don’t fight anymore…” Nick said, and it sounded much better when he thought it in his mind.

“ _Oh!_ ” Harry scoffed. “That’s a great idea! No really, two thumbs up guys!” Harry stopped and looked up with a faked surprised face and brought his hand to his head. “Hey, I just looked into the future and that works out _really_ great for everyone.”

“What are you even doing here?” Louis asked.

Harry furrowed his brow in annoyance. “Gee Louis? Could it be because you and I were supposed to meet up with Niall, Zayn, and Liam for lunch? Hmmm? Amazing how you could have forgotten that along with all of your sense!”

“Shit! Sorry, I promise I can be ready in just a couple minutes!” Louis said as he ran out and into his own bedroom to quickly throw on some clothes.

Nick stood awkwardly with Harry, still holding the cushion in front of his junk. “So, you aren’t going to tell anyone about this are you?”

“And why shouldn’t I?”

“Because you’re a good friend to both of us and you know that the other boys are just going to give us crap when this isn’t even that big a deal?”

Harry continued to glare and shake his head. “Fine.”

“Thank you Haz.”

Harry sighed and started to walk back out the door. “You can come too if you put some bloody clothes on. I’ll be in the car.”

+

“You two hooked up?” Were the first words that greeted them from Liam upon sitting down at their usual table a week later.

Harry groaned. “Thanks a lot Liam.”

“Oh my god, you two slept together?” Zayn asked, smirking slightly at the blushes on his friends’ faces.

“What the fuck is wrong with you two?” Niall questioned, stuffing a couple curly fries into his mouth.

“What? We are both two consenting adults who are taking out their anger in a less destructive way than we very well could have.” Louis huffed, looking less like and adult and more like a pouty toddler. “You’re all making a bigger deal than it is.”

“Yeah. We talked it over and we both realized that we’ve a rough couple of months and we deserve a bit of fun.” Nick said.

Liam looked between both of them and shook his head vigorously. “No! This could end up ruining your friendship. When two exes try to just be casual, someone always ends up getting hurt.”

Louis waved him off though. “Nobody’s going to get hurt! We set up ground rules and everything! And now that we’re hooking up, we aren’t fighting anymore.”

“Problem solved.” Nick grinned. “Now we have finally achieved peace!”

“Repeatedly.” Louis mumbled and Nick high fived him.

The rest of the group did not share in their joy, and instead stared at them with stern expressions. But they just ignored them and continued with their explanations.

“There’s something really liberating about not having to take it too seriously.” Nick pointed out.

“Definitely! Like last night we were fucking while I returned a couple phone calls.” Louis smirked.

Niall spit out his food in disbelief. “Oh my god! I knew you didn’t have a treadmill!”

Louis and Nick burst out laughing and high fived again. Now that everyone was very uncomfortable, Louis got up to get him and Nick some drinks from the bar and everyone dropped the topic. The other boys knew that they wouldn’t get the two most stubborn people in their group to change their minds. They just had to realize their mistake on their own.

+

That realization wouldn’t come easy though, because things kept coming up between them that made them want to fight and they just kept on having sex. After a while it didn’t even take that much to get them started.

Nick would come into the room with an empty carton of milk while Louis is sitting on the couch. “I can’t believe you drank all my milk again!”

“We could have sex.”

“Okay.” And Nick would toss the milk behind him like it was no big deal.

Louis would be banging on the door of the shower yelling “You fucking idiot! You are taking too long!”

And then he would be getting his clothes off and jumping in along with Nick. They would get dirty and then they both get clean. How nice.

Nick would be trying to send a letter and find that Louis has used all of his stamps. So, they fuck on the living room floor and Nick would buy more later.

It was all fun and games until one morning, after Louis came in to yell at Nick for his work alarm waking him up to early, and they had sleepy morning sex on Nick’s bed. Louis was melting down into Nick’s warm sheets, ready to just fall asleep right there, and Nick was quickly getting dressed so he could actually go to work.

“Well that was fun.” Nick said, throwing on the closest shirt he could find.

“Yeah, that was a good one.” Louis said breathlessly. “Mental note, confront you about your stupid alarm more often.”

They both chuckled and Nick smiled down at Louis fondly. “Alright well, I’ll see you later.” He left a quick kiss on Louis lips and went straight out the door. It wasn’t until was pressing the button in the lift when he realized what he had done. “Shit.”

+

After a grueling day at work, where Nick spent most of his time thinking about that morning and that stupid kiss, he met up with Harry and Niall at their usual bar. It didn’t take too long for Nick to let the festering thoughts about what it could possibly mean take over and he was telling them what happened.

“Okay so last night, Louis left the dishes in the sink so we had sex three times.”

“Sure.” Harry said, no longer fazed by his friends tales of their sexcapades.

“And then this morning my alarm woke Louis up and he came in to yell at me and we had sex again.”

Niall slumped his shoulders. “Right.”

Nick took a deep breath. He knew they weren’t really listening, but he also knew they were probably going to yell when he told them what happened next. “So anyway… when I was leaving for work today… we might have kissed.”

“Oh that’s weird.” Niall chirped, suddenly interested. “That is _weird._ ”

“Right?” Nick said astoundingly. “That kiss violated the spirit of our whole arrangement! I mean, he probably thinks I’m getting feelings for him.”

Harry laughed meanly. “Well, are you?”

“No! I-it didn’t mean anything…” Nick trailed off for a moment. But in that small fraction of a second he remembered all the times he and Louis sex since their little arrangement started. How he already knew everything Louis liked so he felt more confident then he had in weeks. How when he was inside Louis it just felt so much more right than he remembered. How he caught himself staring fondly at his friend when nobody else was around. “It was just some leftover reflex from when we were a couple…”

Harry and Niall shared a knowing look. They could always tell when Nick was lying to not only them, but himself. “Well, there’s really only one thing to do you know.”

“Let me guess, we have to stop this don’t we?”

Harry shrugged and nodded his head not-so-regretfully. “One of you is going to get hurt Nick.”

+

One of them was already hurt though. When Nick sat Louis down that night and told him how it would just be better if they stopped and tried to be normal friends, Louis started yelling. And not just normal yelling; incoherent, livid screams came out about Louis didn’t understand how Nick be such a jerk and how he could just ruin everything. And of course Nick knew that Louis wasn’t really mad at him, but he started yelling at him too anyway. And just like the first time they weren’t even listening to anybody’s words. They just shouted and insulted each other, but this time it wasn’t going to end in the ripping off of clothes.

It ended with Louis crying his eyes out and running into his room, slamming the door shut and locking it behind him. Nick wasn’t doing much better though, because not only was he crying, but he also had access to the liquor cabinet. He went straight for it and didn’t even care which bottle he was opening, just poured it into his mouth and collapsed onto the kitchen floor.

Louis cried himself to sleep because he knew form the very start that he was probably going to fall for Nick again. He didn’t even know why they broke up in the first place, but he knew the excises he gave Harry. _‘He’s just a couple of years too old for me’_ or _‘His music taste was too awful and out there for me’_ or _‘We just weren’t meant to be’_ were all the things he would say over and over again when someone asked. None of them were true though.

The truth was that Nick was distant and not into commitment and Louis was too much of a coward to fight for him. He let Nick go and was holding onto each time he and Nick could hook up to have just a small piece of him. Sometimes Louis wouldn’t do some of his chores just so Nick would get mad and fuck him. It was sad really.

Now that he had lost Nick completely, at least that’s what Louis sure happened; he figured he should probably find somewhere else to live. He knew that after this it would just be too unbearable to be his close to him.

In the morning Louis started packing up some clothes, he wasn’t really sure where he was going to go, but he figured by the end of that day he would have somewhere. Nick hadn’t come in to see him yet, at least he hadn’t tried to because Louis still had the door locked. He didn’t really know what he would say to him if he did though. It’s a little hard to apologize for loving someone.

When the bag was pretty much filled, Louis heard a low rumble in his tummy so he thought it would be safe to get some food. Of course Nick would be standing in the kitchen already, sipping a cup of tea and looking like death. Louis tried to walk around him, to avoid any awkward talks but alas, Nick is blocking the fridge.

“Milk’s empty again.” Is all Nick says.

Louis can’t quite find his own voice. He just nods and goes to the cupboard to get his cereal anyway; he doesn’t mind eating it dry. “I’ll pick some up when I come back for my stuff.”

“Excuse me?”

Louis continues to pour his cereal and not look at Nick in the eye. “I-I might be trying to find new housing…”

Nick dropped his cup, the mug smashing into pieces on the floor, and causing Louis to jump and finally look up at him. “You don’t have to do that! I-I’m sorry about last night but… I don’t want you to leave!”

“Nick, you said it yourself, we kissed and that means the next step is someone getting hurt.” Louis mumbled. “I just don’t want to live with you like that.”

“I-I’ll stop then. I’ll stop falling for you! I didn’t mean to in the first place when we started this, but there’s just something about you and—”

“Stop!” Louis shouted, his eyes wide and watery and hands on Nick’s chest. “D-did you just say you were falling for me?”

Nick opened his mouth a couple of times, eyes darting around confused, and he probably wasn’t breathing. “I-I yes… I thought that’s why you were yelling at me last night… and why you’re trying to leave me now?”

Louis dropped his hands and brought them to his mouth. He couldn’t stop from bursting out and laughing because this was just too perfect. He laughed so hard his face turned red and he had to lean on the counter to keep from falling on the floor. Nick, however, was staring angrily at him, hands on hips and everything.

“I’m glad this is all so amusing to you.” Nick spat as he stepped over the broken mug and tried to leave the kitchen.

Louis waved his hand around frantically and jumped over the pieces to stop him. “Wait! No you fucking idiot, I’m not laughing at you because of that! I’m just really happy!”

“What?”

Louis smiled and shook his head. He pulled Nick down by his hair and kissed, hard. Nick was a bit stunned to say the least, but he fell into it and picked Louis up, pressing him up against the wall. “Oh. Okay so what does this mean then?”

“I think it means the deal’s off and you’re bringing romance back in.”

+

“So you two got back together?” Niall asked with a confused look on his face as he sat down. It was brought on by the fact that when he left the table, Nick and Louis had just sat down, but now that he was back, they were practically sucking each other’s faces off.

Zayn snapped his fingers by their ears a couple of times until they pulled away. “This is really great for both of you, but could you not in public?”

Louis blushed and unwrapped his arms from around Nick’s neck. “Sorry we’re just really excited.”

Harry was staring dreamily at them, head in his hands, as if this was all because he didn’t keep their little secret. Which is silly, but when Louis tried explaining that to Harry he just denied the real story. Liam, however, was sitting with his arms over his chest and a pout on his puppy dog lips.

“Awe Li, aren’t you happy for us?” Nick asked, arm reaching around Louis’ shoulder and snuggling into his smaller boyfriend. They looked at each other with a sparkling smile and Nick leaned down to peck his lips once. And then again. And then a couple more times until Zayn was breaking them up again.

“I am happy. But it would be nice if for once you guys would learn one of my lessons.” Liam said.

“Hey, we learned!” Louis told him. “There was quite a bit of crying and drinking before we got back together! I even packed a suitcase to move out and everything. Sorry that destiny got in the way of your life lesson.”

“You think it’s destiny that we are together?” Nick asked, batting his eyes over dramatically.

Louis nodded his head and they almost started kissing again, but Zayn put a firm hand between them. Liam got over it and things were finally normal again. Everyone was happy.

Well apart from the fact that Nick and Louis were acting even more annoying together than they had the first time they dated. It was sickening but cute and at least they weren’t fighting.

_**FIN** _


End file.
